 SUCTION STABILIZERS
There are instances where pulsations on the suction side of a reciprocating pump can cause the same problems with vibration and hammer seen on the discharge side. More often, though, the problem is one of partial or complete cavitation.
A little known phenomenum called acceleration head relates directly to the acceleration of fluid velocity on each stroke of the pump, a factor not seen in laminar flows with rotary PD pumps and centrifugal pumps.
Suction Stabilizers can be sized to recover up to 95% of acceleration head losses and can easily make the difference where NPSHR is concerned. Regardless, it is a parameter which every specifying engineer is obliged to check when applying a reciprocating PD pump.
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